Banquet scene: fragment of wall painting from the tomb of
Nebamun (no. 4)
Thebes, Egypt
18th Dynasty, around 1350 BC
This fragment is part of at least four horizontal registers
showing a banquet scene. The British Museum also has two larger
fragments from the same wall (EA 37984 and 37986).
The women in the upper scene are shown with elaborate hair,
probably wigs, with pointed cones of fat on their heads and lotus
flowers in their hands. Some place either a lotus flower or a small
fruit, thought to be a mandrake, under the nose of their companion.
The lower scene shows part of a group of female musicians, who play
a form of lute and also a double pipe. The hieroglyphs above them
refer to Nebamun.
Banquet scenes are common in tombs of the Eighteenth Dynasty in
the Theban necropolis, but their significance is much harder to
ascertain. The whole scene might be regarded as an expression of
intoxication, possibly part of a shared religious experience. Many
of the sub-scenes can also be interpreted as sexual allegories,
which may refer to the hoped-for rebirth which the tomb was in part
designed to ensure.
L. Manniche, 'Reflections on the banquet scene' in La peinture Égyptienne ancienn, Brussels (1994), pp. 29-36
L. Manniche, Lost tombs: a study of certain (London, Kegan Paul International, 1988)